Patients who have physical difficulties with mobility or bedfast mostly lie on a mattress over a long period of time and are thus susceptible to develop decubitus ulcers on multiple areas of body due to continuous pressure. In order to minimize or eliminate the development of decubitus ulcers caretakers must turn patients' body over or move patient to alternate the areas of pressure on the body. The conventional medical air mattress was developed to assist in the manual movement of and alternating pressure areas on the patient to generate wave motion for changing the contact areas of the patient's body. The conventional medical air mattress has the following inadequacies.
To assist patients in turning over, two inclination providing cells are mounted under the body air cells. When the patients need to turn over, one of the inclination providing cells inflates to tilt the conventional air mattress. This design offers only one inclination angle. Patients with varying disabilities will require different inclination positions, which are decided by physicians or the patient's discomfort. In the event that the patient requires a different angle than that offered by the conventional air mattress caretakers may use non-recommended accessories or the therapy cannot be provided. Either of these options put the patient at risk of injury.
Because the patients lying on the conventional air mattress have difficulty with mobility or bedfast, the protective apparatus around the conventional air mattress is important to keep the patient from falling off of the mattress. Hospital beds, which a medical mattress is used on, are equipped with guardrails, which at times can prohibit medical staff from taking care of the patients lying on the hospital beds and cannot always be in optimal position for patient protection. Many patients require the continued therapy of a medical air mattress in their homes. The medical air mattress is also required to assist caretakers moving the patient with minimal manual labor. In many cases the home is not equipped with guardrails on the bed that the medical air mattress is being used. The conventional medical air mattress can have air filled guardrails to protect patients and to assist caretakers, who can easily press down the air guardrails. If the patient accidentally compresses either air guardrail, such air guardrails will slant outward and cannot protect the patient anymore, causing the opportunity for the patient to fall from mattress. Such air guardrails have no connection with the upper bedspreads, only being connected to the lower bedspreads restrict the ability to have mutual-drawing power to each other from two-side on the upper bedspreads.
Further difficulties with handling a conventional air mattress occur when the patients lying on the mattress need to use a bedpan. The conventional air mattress has several detachable air cells, which correspond to the position of the patient's hip. A mattress according to the state of the art is presented in FIG. 11A, which is described more detailed later. When the detachable air cells are removed to form a recess, the bedpan will be able to be put into the recess for use. However, to prevent secondary infection and to be cleaned with ease, the conventional air mattress has an upper bedspread to cover on the air cells. Therefore, the upper bedspread needs to be removed before the detachable air cells are removed. Removing the upper bedspread still requires the need to move the patient lying on the conventional air mattress. The design of detachable air cells is inconvenient to caretakers since the patient still needs to leave the conventional air mattress. Furthermore moving the patient and removing the upper bedspread requires two or more individuals. This is an inefficient use of time and human resources, and the detachable air cells do not function as what the original design expected.